Battle for Harness Jewels spots heats up

This weekend will see the end of qualifying for this year’s Harness Jewels, which are to be held at Cambridge on Saturday, May 31.

Throughout the season horses have been competing to earn themselves, and their connections, the right to be at New Zealand harness racing’s richest race day, through stake money earned the completion of racing on Sunday sees the end of qualifying for this year.

The competition for those final spots which are still available will intensify over the weekend with some of those just on the cusp of a place looking to sneak in through the back door and into the top 12 in the final hours.

This year’s Jewels will also see the introduction of a new initiative with one Australian horse being invited to compete in each category. Not all of the nine invitees will attend but in those particular categories the 13th spot will be allocated to the 13th highest stake earner in that category from this season.

To help keep tabs on the permutations of the weekend, we have broken down all nine categories and listed all horses racing this weekend which have a chance at making their respective category. Please see below.

It should be noted also that the Manawatu meeting this weekend is a two-day meeting with racing on Friday and Sunday, giving those competing at the meeting double the chance to earn the required stake money to make the Jewels fields.